


word of mouth

by warriorprincessclarke



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, this is just just really sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 18:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17006490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warriorprincessclarke/pseuds/warriorprincessclarke
Summary: jester and caleb find out how they feel about each other by happenstance. words not meant for each other are repeated and overheard when they were not supposed to be.





	1. jester

“The more the merrier!” Jester said to the shy elven girl in front of her. Her name was Phira and Jester loved her already.

 

“I wouldn’t want to intrude. What would your other friends think?” The girl had soft blonde hair and a short sword at her hip. Jury was still out on if she could use it, but Jester didn’t believe in making friends based on physical merit like some of her friends did. This girl was alone and told Jester that she liked her hair, so she would be an honorary member of the Mighty Nein. It was decided.

 

Jester had found Phira in the middle of a tavern brawl. She didn’t seem to be included in the fight, it seemed to be more  _ about  _ her. Phira had her sword clutched in her hand at her hip while two burly men yelled and punched and gestured to her more times than comfortable. One quick thaumaturgy and a toll the dead spell shut them up real quick. And after a quick conversation, Jester found out that Phira was a lone adventurer. Jester didn’t believe in lone adventurers. She believed in friends. It had worked out well for her, anyways.

 

“Oh, do not worry about them, they will love you!” Jester exclaimed, grabbing Phira by the hands and smiling her most convincing smile.

 

“What are they like? Your friends?” Phira asked, hands going nervously soft in Jester’s.

 

“ _ Well,”  _ Jester began, putting a finger to her chin in thought. “They are really fun. Some of them are a little scary but they’re mostly fun.”

 

“Scary?” Phira asked, gulping.

 

“Kind of,” Jester said, “Beau is pretty mean but after a while she gets less mean. Yasha  _ looks  _ pretty scary, she’s pretty much an angel of death, but she really likes flowers which means she’s pretty cool. Nott has a lot of teeth but she’s pretty much my best friend in the whole world so that means she’s not scary. Sometimes Fjord doesn’t like new people but that’s fine, I am sure he will love you, you’re so nice after all. And Cadeceus makes tea out of dead people.”

 

Phira’s face went pale, “Dead people tea?”

 

“Yes, it’s actually really yummy, I’ll have him make you some.” Phira didn’t look convinced, so Jester moved on before she could ask more questions. “And last is Caleb! Caleb is actually probably the least scary one of us. He’s a little bit stinky because he doesn’t take a lot of baths, but that’s okay he’s getting better. He doesn’t really like talking to people all the time, so it might seem like he doesn’t like you but that’s probably not true. He’s just always thinking. He’s really smart, you know.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes. He knows basically everything about magic. Nott always says he’s the most powerful wizard ever and I am  _ pretty  _ sure she’s right. One time he made me really big and he’s saved us in battles with lots of fire a whole bunch of times, but don’t talk to him about the fire, he’s really sensitive about it. I am not going to tell you why because I don’t think he wants very many people to know, and I know that if I had a big secret he would keep it for me. He is really nice like that.”

 

“It seems like you like him a lot.” 

 

“Of course I do! He is my friend. Did you know he has a cat?!” Jester asked excitedly, her brain skipping with thoughts of Caleb.

 

Phira looked at her confused, “No, no I didn’t.”

 

“He really loves his cat. Sometimes his cat is an octopus, but I think he gets sad when his cat is an octopus. I wish he could keep his cat a cat all the time. He smiles a lot more when Frumpkin is a cat. He is one of those people who doesn’t really smile a lot, but when he does he’s like a really bright candle. I like trying to make him smile. It doesn’t work all the time, but when he does he feels like a whole new person. Not that normal Caleb is bad, he’s just a little gloomy, like a raincloud! But rainclouds make flowers grow, don’t they?” Jester’s smile grew like a daisy after a storm.

 

“That is all very nice, but how about I go meet your friends for myself?” Phira asked.

 

“Of course! Let’s go!”

 

* * *

  
  


“And this is Caleb!” Jester finished introducing her friends to Phira. It had gone as she expected. Nott and Caduceus were excited about a new friend, Yasha was indifferent, and Fjord and Beau were skeptical. Caleb was the only wildcard.

 

“Hello Caleb,” Phira extended her hand to him.

 

Caleb took it with a glint of Fjord and Beau’s skepticism and shook. “It is nice to meet you,” he said with his trademark robotic voice that came out around new people. Sometimes it came out around Jester when she tried to make a joke and he didn’t get it. But that was okay, she didn’t think his robot voice was weird like other people did. That was just Caleb.

 

Suddenly Frumpkin came out from behind Caleb’s legs and began sniffing the tip of Phira’s boot. Suddenly, as if on cue, Caleb’s face lit up. His yellow teeth shining brighter than any shade of white, his eyes warm like afternoon sunlight. “And this is my cat. His name is Frumpkin. You may pet him if you like.”

 

“Hello Frumpkin,” Phira bent down and stroked her hand along Frumpkin’s back as he purred, “I’ve heard so much about you.”

 

“You have?” Caleb asked her, his eyes darting to Jester. Jester felt a blush blooming on her cheeks, turning her blue skin a faint shade of lilac. 

 

“Jester told me you really like your cat.”

 

“That I do,” Caleb answered Phira without taking his eyes off of Jester. Jester tried looking everywhere else besides his glowing warm eyes, but she ultimately failed. She couldn’t help but look at them. Besides, when was she going to get another chance? A happy Caleb only came around so often.

 

“She says you smile a lot more when you are around him,” Phira stated factually. Jester’s cheeks went a deeper shade of purple. “And that she likes it when you smile.”

 

“Phira, you weren’t supposed to  _ tell  _ him all that stuff. If you’re going to be a part of the Mighty Nein you are going to have to learn how to keep better secrets,” Jester said more aggressively than she intended. 

 

“Why would that need to be a secret?” Caleb asked, once again his eyes only on Jester, not the person speaking to him. 

 

Jester and Phira remained silent for a moment. Embarrassment began filling Jester like an overflowing teapot. Why was she embarrassed anyways? It was so much better when people smiled. Caleb just never smiles so it is especially fun when it happens. It is like a diamond. People like them because they are so rare.

 

“I don’t know…” Jester said, still avoiding his eyes. “Because you are not supposed to tell people what you really think about them.”

 

Beau commented to Fjord from the side of the group, “That makes absolutely no sense.”

 

“You like my smile, Jester?” Caleb asked, his voice quiet. 

 

“I mean,” Jester said, crossing her arms defensively, “ _ yeah.” _

 

Caleb’s smile, which had diminished almost entirely throughout this conversation, reignited once more. It wasn’t a burst of flame, it was more like the remnants of cozy campfire. It was warm and comforting. The kind where you wake up and the burning cinders leftover from a long night previous hold the memories of midnight conversations not to be spoken of in daylight. The bonds created held dearly and silently, but forever remaining.

 

“Thank you very much,” Caleb’s robot voice returned, but it was different this time. It wasn’t stilted in a cold way, like he didn’t know what he wanted to say and so therefore didn’t say it. It was like he knew what he wanted to say, what he was feeling, but didn’t quite understand how to put it into words. The warmth was there but the experience wasn’t, leaving an innocence in its wake. “I like your smile as well.”

 

Jester’s cheeks felt like they had gone indigo with embarrassment. But a smile of her own cut through the splotches of emotion presenting themselves on her face. That same sunlight warmth that came from Caleb’s smile felt like it was building and coalescing in her chest, taking a home next to her heart. 

 

“Thank you, Caleb,” Jester said. And then quietly, filled with a softness that clashed with her usual brash nature, she said, “Look, now we are both smiling.”


	2. caleb

The elf girl seemed to have taken to Caleb, much to his discomfort. But he understood it, so he wouldn’t turn her away. They spent much time walking next to each other, sitting next to each other, being in the same space as each other, not talking. The two of them were very alike in that way. Neither was very outgoing, nor did they want to be. 

 

He felt no need to speak to her, but every once in a while the urge would overtake her.

 

“Do you like adventuring?” She asked one day as they were travelling.

 

“I do it because I have to,” he said bluntly.

 

The silence fell over them again. They continued walking side by side at the back of the group. Caleb was content for it to stay that way. But moments later her soft voice spoke up again.

 

“It must be nice having a little family around you all the time.” 

 

Caleb thought for a moment. He wanted to dismiss the comment, return to their semi-uncomfortable silence, but the thought struck him. It  _ was  _ nice. 

 

“Yes, it is. I know I can count on them.” Caleb looked to the group ahead of them. Nott pranced alongside Jester. Beau and Fjord led the charge. Yasha silently nodded along to Caduceus’s prattling. “They are very good friends.”

 

“They’re not much like you and me,” Phira said, “they’re all very loud.”

 

“In their own ways.” Caleb thought of Yasha’s quiet demeanor but intimidating presence. Beau’s harsh tongue. “You get used to them, though.”

 

“But they’re so unlike us, though,” Phira insisted.

 

“Yes they are, but that can be a good thing sometimes. Without them I would be all by myself, not taking action. They push me in all sorts of ways,” Caleb said.

 

“They push you to be a better adventurer?” Phira asked.

 

Caleb thought for a moment. She wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t entirely right either. “Yes, they do, but that isn’t all. They make me a better person. I am a pretty gloomy man, no?”

 

Phira’s stutter and lack of answer was good enough for him.

 

“But somebody like Jester is not so gloomy. She is a ball of sunshine. Very mischievous sunshine, but everything she does is to make herself and those around her smile. So is it really that mischievous?”

 

“She does always seem to be having a good time. I wonder what that’s like…” Phira seemed to wonder aloud instead of saying directly to Caleb.

 

“I often wonder the very same. That is why it is so wonderful to have somebody like her around. Her sunshine burns away my clouds, even if just for a moment. Her joy is so innocent. Nothing about me is as innocent as her, so her smile reminds me that my past does not define me. That joy can be had in the moment despite everything else that might be so terrible. Sometimes I do not believe it. Sometimes I sit by myself and think of everything that has gone wrong but then her squeaky voice will pop into my ear and her head on my shoulder and she will say something absurd, something that catches me so off guard that I can’t help the spark of joy that burns in my chest. She just draws it out of me,” Caleb said, his voice wistful and his mind not in this moment, but in all the moments before when Jester had pulled this side of him to the forefront. “I guess that is her intention.” 

 

He thought back to their conversation a week prior. Her purple cheeks and defensive nature and sweet comments made in his absence accidentally brought to his ears. His own cheeks took on the same heat as hers at the mere thought of all her silly antics of the past, at the thought of what she really meant by them. 

 

He forced his thoughts to return to this plane, return back to his body. He saw the group in front of them again. But this time something was different. Everyone’s backs were to him but one. The blue cheek of Jester was turned ever so slightly over her shoulder, her eyes gazing softly in his direction, a shy smile dancing on the corner of her mouth. 

 

He guessed she’d heard him.

 

* * *

  
  


The campfire was raging with a soft hum, putting all of their friends to sleep around them. Caleb and Jester had volunteered for first watch at the same time, entirely separate from each other. Jester’s face had frozen and that same purple had creeped across her skin. He might not have thought anything of it had she not.

 

This had led to a palpable silence around the fire.

 

The world around him was dark. It was called a watch but it should be called a listen, for there was nothing to see in the dead of night. So instead he trained his eyes on Jester, whose eyes were anywhere but on him. Well, most of the time. He watched the firelight flicker off her blue skin like a sunset on the ocean. Her eyes flicked between the fire, to their sleeping companions, to the darkness around them. But once in a while, they landed on him. The looks were passing, lasting only a moment before moving on. Their eyes would meet across the fire, the space between them warmer than the flames, but she would quickly move on. He felt successful every time he caught her. Could she feel his gaze fixed on her? A small spark inside him hoped she could.

 

When she grew restless, Caleb watched her pull out her sketchbook and begin drawing her pen across the page, not taking her eyes off the book in her lap. He seldom got to see the drawings she made in her book, but he got to see the giggles that escaped her as she did, which was almost good enough. 

 

After long minutes of watching her doodle, he asked, “What are you drawing?”

 

Jester jumped with a start. “Oh, um, nothing.”

 

“You do not wish to share your talents?” Caleb asked, his voice filled with genuity. Of the few drawings he had seen, it was obvious her talents were abundant. “If I had your such talent, I would wish to share them with everybody.”

 

Jester bowed her head over her lap in thought. The silence between them in this moment was more tangible than it had been all night. He watched her consider his words, his own head filling with regret for bringing it up. He was about to apologize for prying, when she stood up from the log she had been perched upon all night and sat down next to him. His log was small, barely enough room for the both of them. Her skirts were pressed between her leg and his, held in place by their proximity. Neither of them acknowledged overtly, though it was a persistent thought in Caleb’s mind.

 

Jester opened the book up and placed it gingerly in Caleb’s lap. He cradled the pages among his fingertips, careful not to smudge any of her work. As he scanned the page his face dropped, not for any sadness, but for an overwhelming amount of… something. He couldn’t place it. It was similar to happiness, but it bogged him down the way sadness did. The sight of his own face sprinkled across the page in different poses. Some of him alone, some of him holding Frumpkin, some of him and Nott. But in every single one, he was smiling. Some of the smiles were soft, taking up only the corners of his lips and a glint in his eye. Some encompassed his face, showing all of his teeth and none of his eyes. 

 

So this was how she saw him.

 

“Jester…” Caleb started, but he didn’t know where he was going with it.

 

“I know, I know. It’s embarrassing.” She hid her face in her hands and brought her knees up to her chest. Caleb took note of the emptiness he felt against his leg.

 

“These are incredible, Jester,” Caleb reached out and took Jester’s wrist and softly pulled her hands from her face. She looked over at him, her eyes wide with vulnerability. It was a look usually reserved for when she was broken, her bubbly exterior cracked. But in this moment it was cracked in a different way. Cracked not to reveal hidden sadness, but a hidden happiness different from her usual demeanor. “They are very flattering.” He managed a low chuckle along with a soft smile.

 

This caused Jester’s hunched, embarrassed manner to relax into her own smile.

 

“I really do like your smile, Caleb,” Jester said, her voice a whisper, “You should use it more.”

 

“I have very little reason to,” Caleb replied. It was honest. But it sent Jester’s expression into a downward spiral.

 

“But you have all of us,” Jester argued, gesturing to their sleeping friends. She was so genuinely confused with his sadness. He didn’t blame her, she hadn’t come across much sadness in her time. Not the kind that left a permanent stain.

 

“I have quite a bit of sadness that came before you guys. But when I do smile, it is always because of you all. My friends.” Their gazes lingered on each other, firelight dancing between them.

 

Caleb had never heard Jester’s voice this soft before, “Good. Because I try really hard. You deserve to be happy more.” 

 

He didn’t. He really,  _ really  _ didn’t. But her thinking he did was enough for the both of them. “I appreciate it, Jester. You don’t know how much I do.”

 

Jester relaxed her legs from her chest, bringing her knee back down to rest against Caleb’s. The two of them glanced down at where their bodies connected, where they were tethered to each other. She cleared her throat and adjusted her position, seemingly for her own comfort. She settled with her shoulder brushing against Caleb’s arm. The hairs up and down that arm stood on end. Caleb didn’t dare budge lest it remind her that she could move away.

 

Side by side, they watched the flames crackle in silence. The stars were bright and the moon at its peak. Tiredness washed over Caleb, but if he gave in to sleep then this moment would have to end. His eyes grew heavier and heavier by the minute, warmed by the comfort of the fire. During one exceptionally long blink that bordered on sleep, Caleb felt a weight on his shoulder. He looked down and was met with blue horns, Jester’s head nuzzled against his shoulder.

 

“I like you, Caleb,” Jester mumbled sleepily. It was factual, easy. As if nothing in the world were truer.

 

With the same tone, because it was exactly how he felt, Caleb said, “I like you too, Jester.”

 

Jester picked her head up from his shoulder. Caleb couldn’t shake the feeling of disappointment at the absence of her warmth. His own personal fire that flared in his chest whenever she was around. The only fire in him he didn’t despise. But the disappointment faded when he was met with her firelit face. Her bottom lip softly clasped between her teeth. Her eyes tidepools; a bit of ocean stolen just for her.

 

And Caleb needed those pools to douse his flames.

 

So he leaned in.

 

But the water didn’t extinguish the flames, it only made them stronger. He hadn’t kissed anyone in a very long time, he thought it may feel foreign on his lips. But her lips felt familiar. The warmth was the same that he felt every time he looked at her, every time her mischievous smile crossed his vision, but amplified a thousand times over. He could feel the surprise in her frozen lips melt in the heat of his fire, finding a comfortable space against his. He felt something brush over the hand that rested against her soft cheek, her fingers rising up to meet his. 

 

Eventually he forced himself to pull away. He could have lived in that moment forever, oh how he wished he could have, but all good things must come to an end. Their lips parted, but their noses were still no more than inches apart. He could see the pockets of swirling ocean in her eyes, and he felt safe from his own flames.

 

His heart was full, and that kiss had said more than he could ever express with words. So he repeated in a low, gravelly voice, “I like you too, Jester.”


End file.
